Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Lawyers of Reddit recount most outrageous cases they've been asked to take

Reddit top voted answers...

A year out of law school I once had a potential client who wanted me to sue Canada. Apparently he could not get into the country due to his felony record. I tried to reason with him, that it was up to the sovereign nation to set its own rules regarding entry to the country but he insisted that we could make a lot of money suing Canada. I didn't take the case but I told him I might be able to get him a letter that said "sorry" -from Canada

I'm not a lawyer but as a child I was taken into foster care and then returned to my father's custody so he had custody of me from ages 4-16. When I was 22 he tried to sue me for the costs involved in caring for me for that time, saying that he had no obligation to take custody of me and had only done so to "save" me from foster care. It was obviously dismissed and I don't talk to him any more.


While working at a plaintiffs employment firm, two memorable consults came in
  1. Guy gets fired for being late too much, wants to sue for discrimination because he has a sugar addiction and needs to stop and 7-11 for a big gulp before shift begins, and he usually ends up missing the bus.
  2. A woman comes in, she was a bus driver& was terminated during her probationary period, she had three accidents in 6 weeks. She wants to sue for discrimination because she has anxiety & a therapy rabbit. All the while sitting at the conference room table petting the therapy bunny.

An older retired man came to me because his condo association claimed he owed $300 in condo fees. He had refused to pay because he believed they provided no value - apparently they put the money towards BBQ events rather than snow clearing or upgrades to the building.
It was a matter of principle for him despite the fact my bill would go beyond $300 very quickly. So I wrote letters to the condo association demanding an accounting of their funds (which he was entitled to under their bylaws). Eventually they hired a lawyer who I had fun dealing with, explaining to him he would just have to sue him to recover the $300 because it was a matter of principle for my client and we went back and forth on it for awhile. I knew the condo association would never go forward with it because they would have to pay their lawyer way more than $300 to recover. It ended up just being a big game of chicken.
He must have spent a couple grand defending it, but he didn't care at all. He just wanted to stick it to his condo association.

6 comments:

ndspinelli said...

I can't tell you how many cases I've worked where the plaintiff is suing for disabling whiplash in a rear end crash w/ NO DAMAGE to either vehicle.

Some of the most outrageous claims come from work comp. You see employers will make all types of accommodations to get an "injured" employee back to work. Here's just one example, but I got many. A woman was a secretary. She said she had carpal tunnel but was afraid of surgery[it's a simple outpatient procedure] and would not have it done. So, the company put her on a job answering phones and questions on their product. Well, picking up the phone was painful. They got her a headset. Well, she had to keep taking off the headset because it gave her a headache and the repetitive motion hurt her carpal tunnel. There are some lazy motherfuckers out there that will do and say ANYTHING to not work. I was raised in a blue collar, ethnic, work ethic. That is almost extinct. But, it does remain in the Asian and Mexican culture. I worked thousands of cases. I can think of only a handful of Asian or Mexican plaintiffs. Can you guess the minority w/ the most?

ndspinelli said...

Was that a racist question?

Steg said...

Anxiety and a therapy rabbit! I laughed my ass off at that one.

This one time I was hired to do the audio for a film in NYC and the production was way over my head. I do basic audio with a boom and two wireless lavs. They wanted me to run ten lavs for the actors and three booms as well as radio communications for all assistants on set. I told them 'SURE!' since they were going to get the equipment. I was really nervous as this would be the third film I worked on, second paid job. It was going to be a movie about kids in a classroom, and I imagine a very claustrophobic set without AC in NYC in the summer.

I was willing to do it and all, but I was so relieved when the producer called and said he got someone else.

Steg said...

WAIT- that was almost hired.

Methadras said...

Spinelli, it's amazing how much effort and work people will put into not wanting to work. The effort alone is work unto itself and they utterly miss the irony, but that's why they are stupid, and that's why we have to always cover the care and feeding of the stupid. The working productive people always seem to pick up the slack of those that will find ways not to be productive. I've been sick of that shit for so long now, i can't tell how many times I've seen this kind of bullshit that i just want to string them all up for it.

ndspinelli said...

Meth, Being a malingerer, sloth, can be a full time job. You are absolutely correct. These shitbirds are toxic for chemistry in the workplace. In just the past year I learned how FMLA has turned into the new entitlement. I've gotten cases from a company w/ strong unions, and FMLA is killing them. These slugs take off days on end w/ pay, for lies. In just the 20 years since Bubba made FMLA law, it has turned into the new entitlement. And his wife wants to expand FMLA exponentially.